New Caledonia police detain independence leader and 7 others in wake of revolt against French rule

Paris:Police in the restive French Pacific territory of New Caledonia rounded up eight people Wednesday, including an independence leader, who are sus...

Paris: Police in the restive French Pacific territory of New Caledonia rounded up eight people Wednesday, including an independence leader, who are suspected of having a role in the deadly violence that wracked the archipelago where Indigenous Kanak people have long sought to break free from France.

The early morning round-up was part of an ongoing police investigation launched May 17, just days after unrest first erupted, into a wave of armed clashes, looting, blazes and other violence that turned parts of the capital, Nouméa, and its suburbs into no-go zones.

New Caledonia’s prosecutor, Yves Dupas, said in a statement that eight people were detained from 6 a.m. in Nouméa and its Mont-Dore suburbs. He said those taken in custody include Christian Tein, a leader of a pro-independence group that French officials alleged played a leading role in weeks of violence that erupted in May over contested voting reforms for New Caledonia.

Dupas did not identify the seven other people detained.

The revolt prompted France to declare a state of emergency on the archipelago and rush in reinforcements for police forces that were rapidly overwhelmed.